The present invention relates generally to laser therapeutic devices used to promote healing and reduce pain in injured mammalian tissue and, more particularly, to an improved laser therapeutic device whose performance is enhanced and its ease of operation improved.
In this regard it is important to distinguish between the more commonly known cutting or burning laser used in surgery and therapeutic lasers which promote the healing of injured tissue. In recent years, laser therapeutic devices have come into use to promote the healing of injured tissue, and to reduce pain and edema. Such devices generally use a low power infrared laser in the form of an LED. These devices have been used more often with the treatment of equine injuries. More recently, experimentation has begun with the use of such lasers to treat human injuries. The precise biological mechanism by which these devices operate is unknown. For example, it is not known whether it is the intensity of the photic energy, the rise or fall time of the pulse, or whether it is some other characteristic of the beam. Clinical studies are now under way to gain a better understanding of the biological mechanism.
Laser therapeutic devices generally utilize a separate power supply and a remote probe containing the laser LED. In operation, the user turns on the power, selects a pulse rate in accordance with the particular injury to be treated and thereafter, manually scans the laser beam across the injured tissue for a predetermined period of time. However, such devices are prone to problems because the laser beam must be manually scanned across the injured area. Such manual scanning may result in an inconsistent distribution of laser energy into the wound area. Furthermore, since the device must be manually scanned, the operator is thus required to stand over the patient and manipulate the probe for long periods of time. More recently, in an attempt to avoid the scanning difficulties lasers having a multiplicity of LED's have been proposed. However, these devices simply provide a number of pinpoints rather than uniform energy distribution and cause power supply problems.